Lubricant control valve



June 26, 1945. w, DAVIS 2,378,985

' LUBRICANT CONTROL VALVE Filed March 19, 1943 Patented June 26, 1945 v STATES PATENT OFFICE- asvsass 7 LUBRICANT ooN'rRoL VALVE Ernest W. Davis, River Forest, 111., asslgnor to Stewart-Warner Corporation, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Virginia Application March 19, 1943, Serial No. 479,805

2 Claims. (Cl. 251-78) My invention relates to lubricant control valves moves the female valve member 24 towards the such as are used for controlling the flow of lubriright, so as to uncover the throttling port 22. cant from a high pressure grease hose into a The yoke 30 engages the nut 32 to produce moveplurality of lubricant fittings installed on an aument of the valve rod 28 and female valve memtomobile or other mechanism employing bearings her 24 in a right hand direction, the yoke 30 requiring lubrication. being actuated by lugs 35 on the trigger 34, piv- The general object of this invention is to prooted on the fulcrum pin 36, supported b the vide a device of the class described which is conbody member 10, and confined against longituvenient and efficient in operation. dinal movement by the portion 31 of the cas- A more Specific object is to provide a lubriing 38. The casing 38 slides over the body memcant control valve suitable for use with a high ber l0 and is retained by the screw 40. The working pressure, and which can be operated handle portion 42 is integral with the casing with little physical efiort. 38, and has a bore 44, through which the pipe Another object is to provide such a valve which nipple 46 may be screwed into the inlet I4. will not leak while in its closed position, and The tubular member 48, Figure 1, is constructed which is self-cleaning in operation. of transparent plastic material to provide visibil- Another object is to provide a. valve of the class ity of the helical rotor 50, which is caused to'rodescribed having extraordinary durability, and tate by the flow of lubricant through the tubucne in which objectionable wire drawing aclar member 48, thereby providing a flow indicator tion is eliminated, as will be explained hereinat for indicating the flow of lubricant through the after. control valve. The specific construction of such Another object is to provide a lubricant cona flow indicator is described more fully in my cotrol valve which enables an operator to dispending application Serial Number 462,657, filed charge lubricant from a high pressure grease October .19, 1942.

line at a moderate, selectively controlled, visu- The reducer fitting 52 is screwed over the tubually indicated rate of flow. lar member 48 and supports the lubricant con- A further object is to secure the above named duit 54, which conducts lubricant to the coupling advantages without the necessity of employing 56, which is adapted for making a lubricant tight close fitting parts, or high cost, precision workconnection with a standard lubricant fitting such manship. These and other objects will appear so as those installed on automobiles and other as the description proceeds. mechanisms.

In the drawing: The operation of this control valve is as fol- Figure 1 is a side elevation of the complete conlows: When the nipple 46 is connected with a trol valve of this invention. high pressure lubricant hose, the lubricant passes Figure 2 is a side elevation of the body member through the inlet I4 and fills the lubricant cavity and associated parts with the casing removed. E2. The lubricant is prevented from passing Figure 3 is a plan view of the structure shown through the outlet l6 by virtue of the female valve in Figure 2; member 24, which normally covers the throttlin Figure 4 Ba longitudinal, sectional elevation of port 22. But when the'trigger 34 is moved to the body member with part of the casing inthe position indicated by the dotted lines in Figure cluded, the section being taken on the line 4, 4, 1, the lugs 35 engage the yoke 30, thereby movin Figure 3; and ing the yoke 30 towards the right, so as to exert Figure 5 is an enlarged plan view of the male a pull on the valve rod 28, thereby causing the valve member shown in Figure 4. female valve member 24 to move towards the The body member I0 is provided with a lubriright to uncover the throttling opening 22. This cant cavity 12 having an inlet 54 and an'outlet produces a full flow of lubricant through the I 6. The male valve member "3 is provided with outlet i6, tubular member 48, conduit 54, and a discharge port 20, and a throttling port 22. coupling 56, as will be readil understood. The The female valve member 24 is arranged to slide small aperture 58 in the female valve member 24 over the male valve member I8, and is movable 60 permits lubricant to enter or leave the interior to positions which cover and uncover the throtof the female valve member 24, so as to balance tling port 22. the lubricant pressure therein with the lubricant The spring 26 urges the female valve member pressure in the lubricant cavity l2.

towards the left, so as to cover the throttling If a slow flow of lubricant is desired, the trigger port 22. Sufllclent tension on the valve rod 28 34 is moved a shorter distance, so as only partially to uncover the throttling port 22 by an amount sufilcient to allow the desired rate of flow, as indicated by the movement of the helical rotor 50. The sides of the throttling port may be made tapered, as viewed from above, and as indicated in Figure5, so as to permit a very slow rate of flow when the trigger 34 is moved only a slight distance.

When the trigger 34 is released, the spring 26 returns the female valve member 24, and the trigger 34, to their normal positions. The spring 26 is made rather heavy, and the diameter of the valve rod 28 is quite small so that the spring 26 is strong enough to move the valve rod 28 inwardly against the high pressure in the lulbricant cavity l2. The lubricant pressure within the female valve member 24, acting on the valve rod. 28, tends to move the valve rod 28 towards the right by a force equivalent to the product of the lubricant pressure inside the female valve mem- .ber 24 and the cross sectional area of the valve rod 28. This aids in the operation of moving the trigger 34, so that the operator may operate the valve with little effort, which is one of the objects of this invention. Movement of the trigger towards the right is limited by contact with the handle portion 42, so as to prevent breakage of the valve rod 28 in case undue force is applied to the trigger 34.

The male valve member l8 and female valve member 24 are made of steel and hardened. A slight clearance between these valve members is not objectionable because the lubricant pressure holds the female valve member forcibly against the male valve member around the throttling port 22, thereby preventing leakage. Thisclearance permits making the valve parts by high production, manufacturing methods, so as to provide low manufacturing cost, which is an object of this invention.

In prior devices of this class considerable trouble has been experienced due to the objectionable wire drawing action of high pressure lubricant in flowing at high velocity through small orifices such as those required for controlling the flow. This so-called wire drawing produces microscopic cavities in the valves and seats, and the lubricant flow is thereby localized at these microscopic cavities, which are soon enlarged to a size that produces continualleakage, which is of course wasteful of lubricant and objectionable in other ways.

This wire drawing action seems to be' incompletely understood. It was formerly thought to be the result of simple erosion caused by the high velocity of'the stream of lubricant, but later theories ascribe the action of supersonic vibrations in the fluid, and resulting molecular separation, as the principal cause of wire drawing. This latter theory is supported by experiments in which wire drawing effects are produced without any flow in the contacting fluid, the pressure of which is alternately increased and decreased in very rapid succession throughout a prolonged time interval.

It seems that the shape of the restricted, fluidconducting passage has an important effect on the wire drawing action. A passageway which converges in the direction of flow towards a highly restricted portion, and then diverges in the direction of flow, produces excessive wire drawing action, Cone shaped valves and seats, such as are commonly used in valves of this kind are therefore objectionable. In the valve of this in-.

female valve member.

vention, the flow-restricting portion comprises a throttling port which leads abruptly into a port of substantially greater area extending in a relatively transverse direction, thereby abruptly changing the direction of flow at the flow-restricting portion and thereby providing a valve which is particularly free from wire drawing action, which is an object of this invention.

I claim:

1. In a control valve for controlling the flow of lubricant therethrough at high pressure, the combination of a'body member having a lubricant cavity therein and having an inlet and an outlet for said lubricant cavity; a tubular male valve member, open at one end; and closed at the 0D- posite end, and having a transverse throttling port intermediate said ends, said port extending along substantially less than 180 of the circumference of the male valve member and the latter being positioned within said lubricant cavity with said open end connected with said outlet; a female valve member slidable over said male valve member to a covering position in which said throttling port is covered by said femalevalve' member, and to an uncovering position in which said throttling port is uncovered by said female valve member; a manually operated movable member; means for transmitting motion from said manually operated member to said female valve member for moving said female valve member to said uncovering position; and other means for moving said female valve member to said covering position, the mean clearance between said valve members being sumcient to allow passage of lubricant therebetween at said high pressure, and said female valve member being biased in a direction radially inward towards said throttling port by said high lubricant pressure, so as to prevent leakage of lubricant through said throttling port when said throttling port is covered by said 2. In a control valve for controlling the flow of lubricant therethrough at high pressure, the combination of a body member having a lubricant cavity therein, and having an inlet and an outlet for said lubricant cavity; a tubular male valve member, open at one end and closed at the opposite end, and having a transverse throttlin port intermediate said ends, said throttlingport extending along substantially less than 180 of the circumference of the valve member and the latter being positioned within said lubricant cavity with said open end connected with said outlet; a female valve member slidable over said male valve member to a covering position in -which said throttling port is covered by said female valve member, and to an uncovering position in which said throttling port is uncovered by said female 'valve member; and manually controlled means ERNEST w. DAVIS. 

